The world didn't just go dark. It glitched.
Like someone turned the saturation to zero, then inverted it, then forgot which timeline they were rendering.
Reiji felt his stomach drop the way it does right before a boss does a 360 AOE they never telegraphed properly. Static crawled across his arms, his HUD melting like bad UI shaders.
Then — thunk.
Reiji hit the ground face-first.
"Nice. Real cinematic landing. Ten outta ten."
He pushed himself up, blinking away the visual fuzz.
He wasn't in the forest anymore.
He stood inside a massive circular chamber made of floating stone platforms, each one held up by thick streams of code. Runes, menu icons, old loading screen text… everything mashed together like a cursed fan mod.
Above it all, an enormous eye stared down at him.
The same eye from the sky.
The Observer.
Reiji groaned. "Bro, you look like the final boss of a bootleg RPG sold on shady websites."
The Observer didn't blink — it spiraled, layers of light rotating like broken fractals.
Its voice echoed from everywhere and nowhere:
"OUTSIDER… YOU BREAK THE SCRIPT…"
Reiji rolled his eyes. "Yeah, no kidding. The script tried to kill me with a DLC hog monster."
The floor under him pulsed.
> [LOCATION: UNDOCUMENTED ZONE] [ACCESS: ILLEGAL] [PROBABILITY OF DEATH: 98%]
"Love that optimism," Reiji muttered.
A new sound chimed behind him.
Footsteps.
Reiji spun around and nearly threw up.
Kael stood at the edge of the platform — frozen mid-animation. His armor flickered like bugged textures, his face stuck in a loading expression. Blue light strings wrapped around him like puppet wires.
Reiji pointed. "Hey! Release him! He's not even the discounted villain yet."
The Observer's voice boomed so loud the chamber shook:
"THE HERO MUST FOLLOW THE PATH…"
"YOU INTERFERE."
Reiji scoffed. "Me? Dude, you brought a tutorial boss from the wrong chapter! I'm just trying not to die before lunch."
A pulse of energy slammed into the platform, sending Reiji skidding backward.
Okay.
Yeah.
This wasn't a conversation.
This was a mid-game forced cutscene boss with "Run, don't fight" energy.
Kael twitched — his eyes moved a millimeter, breaking the freeze. His voice came out like broken audio files.
"R…eiji… ru…n…"
Reiji blinked. "Hey man, normally I'd bail instantly, but you look like you're about to turn into a PowerPoint presentation."
The Observer's voice darkened:
"YOU WERE NOT CHOSEN. YOU WERE NOT SUMMONED. YOU ARE A BUG."
Reiji threw his hands up. "I'm DLC at worst!"
The chamber cracked.
Chunks of data fell into the void below.
Reiji's HUD exploded with warnings.
> [ERROR: WORLD-LAYER BREACH DETECTED] [ERROR: UNSCHEDULED HERO FLAG ACTIVATED] [ERROR: PROTAGONIST DESIGNATION SHIFTED]
Reiji froze.
"…Wait. What did that last one say?"
Before he could parse it, Kael jerked violently — the runes around him shattered.
Energy blasted outward like a shockwave.
Reiji yelped and dove behind a floating slab of stone.
Kael screamed — the sound glitching, reversing, replaying.
His body flickered between frames, like the game was trying to render five versions of him at once.
Then he collapsed, unconscious, the puppet strings severed.
Reiji peeked out. "Okay, so that seems fine. Totally normal. Not traumatizing at all."
The Observer thundered:
"THE HERO HAS BEEN DAMAGED."
"THE NARRATIVE MUST CORRECT ITSELF."
A vortex of code started forming in the air, pulling Kael toward it.
Reiji's heart dropped. "Wait. No. No no NO. That looks like a respawn deletion!"
He sprinted forward without thinking.
"HEY EYEBALL! TOUCH HIM AND I'LL PATCH YOU WITH A VIRUS SO NASTY YOU'LL BE RUNNING ON DIAL-UP!"
The vortex surged.
Reiji's hand glowed — the same glitch-flame from before.
He grabbed Kael's arm and yanked him free just as the vortex snapped shut.
The Observer shook the entire chamber like a furious modem:
"YOU DEFY THE WORLD."
Reiji flipped him off. "Yeah well, the world started it!"
Everything collapsed.
The platforms died.
The chamber shattered like a corrupted save file.
Reiji felt gravity vanish—
Kael's body slipped from his grip—
The Observer's eye filled his entire vision.
"THE HERO FLAG HAS SHIFTED."
"YOU HAVE TAKEN HIS ROLE."
Reiji's stomach dropped.
His blood felt like it turned into electricity.
Then—
WHITE.
Like someone unplugged the universe.
To be continued